Sellers, buyers, and lessors of property are familiar with the difficulty of getting text brochures describing an item for sale or rent into the hands of the interested potential buyer. One common solution, used in real estate and some retail settings, is the box having a number of brochures or flyers within it. In the case of real estate, a home for sale may have a “FOR SALE” yard sign, with or without a rider (a smaller sign attached to the main sign), and a box or tube which is supposed to contain flyers for interested parties to take when they notice the house. The problems with this system are numerous, the single most important problem being that the box is empty more often than it contains flyers. Replenishing the boxes of flyers is a hit or miss business at best and is time intensive, even if passers by and potential buyers take only one flyer each.
Various solutions have been considered for providing a system by which a potential buyer may see a text brochure describing an item for sale without these disadvantages. One solution has been the replacement of the original flyer box with a recorded audio message, which may be broadcast by low power radio or made available to those calling a certain number. With such a system there is no possibility of putting the facts actually in the hands of the potential buyer. This is a large disadvantage in terms of sales psychology, because people like to see photographs of the item they are interested in buying. A different solution has been the “fax back,” in which an interested party places a call and an automatic system sends a fax in response. The disadvantage of this system is that the interested party is most interested at the moment they actually are at the home, vehicle, etc, or the moment when they see the advertisement of that item, and there is little chance that the typical individual will be able to receive a fax immediately.
Another solution has been to distribute text and images of an item for sale or lease (such as a home) immediately to interested parties, without the requirement of a fax machine or the like. For example, one system, found at www.house4cell.com, uses an SMS text message access number on a real estate “rider” type sign (a small sign placed on top of a yard sign) to make potential buyers aware that they may send a text message and receive in reply another text message
Most SMS text message systems still have certain difficulties, however. First and foremost, numerous potential buyers will not voluntarily send or do not know how to send an SMS text message, for reasons such as the irritation of pushing telephone buttons multiple times in order to get the desired letter of the alphabet of a single word of a message. In addition, while these systems claim that a reply may be received in “seconds,” this is not the nature of SMS text messaging. Normally, telecommunication service providers assign a lower priority to SMS messages than to voice communications, so SMS messages may enter a queue rather than being sent directly to the intended recipient. When this delay is multiplied by a factor of two, once for the SMS message requesting information and once for the return message, the interested party may have to wait for hours prior to receiving a response message.
U.S. Pat. No. 7,643,821 describes a system and method for providing SMS-formatted text brochures with information about an item. These text brochures can include a variety of types of media, such as links, text about the item, images of the item, and video clips of the item. Further, both the original message and the response message are handled with the same priority as voice communications.
Interactive voice response systems allow customers to access by telephone a computer-controlled menu system and interact with that system either by pushing DTMF codes on their telephone or by speaking simple voice commands to the system.
While the use of IVR systems has become extremely common, a quick review of IVR systems is in order. A caller may desire to obtain information (such as closing time) from a retail establishment (such as a department store). The customer dials the store number and receives a greeting, and the following dialog might ensue.
“Hello, welcome to the XYZ Department Store. For English, Press 1. Por Espanol, o prima el numero dos.” If the customer prefers English, they might press the “1” key on their telephone keypad. If they prefer Spanish, they might press “2”. Either key will send a DTMF code, which is a pair of tones at standardized frequencies. For example, “1” may send two tones, one at a frequency of 697 KHz and the other at a frequency of 1209 KHz, while “2” may send tones, at 697 KHz and 1336 KHz.
The IVR system of the department store will then decode the pair of tones sent. If the tones match the number 1, the IVR will proceed to play a next set of audible options (a verbal menu) in English, while if the tones decode as 2, the IVR will play the menu in Spanish. If the caller entered some other number or key such as 0, the IVR system will play an error message such as “That tone was not understood.”
An example of a menu in English might be as follows. “For hours and locations, press 1. For payments, press 2. For a list of our departments, press 3. To hear about exciting new specials at the XYZ Department Store, press 4. To leave a message, press 5. To return to the previous menu, press 0.”
Such dialogs can be quite lengthy and may involve numerous levels and options for large organizations.
Up to the present time, it had been necessary to individually program IVR systems, that is each individual IVR system up until now has been unique. This individual programming requirement increases the cost of IVR systems dramatically due to the necessity to have teams of programmers work on each new IVR system.
Quick Response codes or “QR codes” are used increasingly for conveying information, particularly in advertising. QR codes are 2-dimensional matrices of black and white squares that function as a two-dimensional bar code, developed to allow high-speed decoding. They can be read by a variety of decoding devices, including dedicated QR code readers and many smart phones provided with QR code reader applications. Originally developed for tracking parts during vehicle manufacturing, QR codes may be used for other purposes, including conveying information to the reading device user. QR code generators are readily available to those who want to generate and print their own codes, and there is a published ISO standard for QR codes.
Other types of codes perform similar functions. MobiTags were developed by Microsoft and do essentially the same thing as QR Codes but use color. ShotCodes were developed in England by the University of Cambridge and can be scanned by a camera phone without requiring a downloaded app for decoding the image and viewing an encoded mobile web page. A ShotCode consists of data circles surrounding a center point. ShotCodes store a look up number consisting of 49 bits of data. A central server decodes the look up number, which is linked to a URL, and sends the URL back to the scanner. (http://www.shotcodes.com/) 2-dimensional and 3-dimensional bar codes may be used in a similar manner.
Increasingly, QR codes, MobiTags, and ShotCodes are being used as a means of communicating with mobile phone users, with links to internet addresses and/or Uniform Resource Locators (URLs) provided in the codes. Code displays are presented in magazines, or on signs, buses, business cards, or almost any object about which a code publisher believes users might need or want information. Users with a camera phone in the case of a ShotCode, or a smart phone in all other cases, equipped with the correct reader application can scan the image of the bar code or QR code to receive a URL that will open a mobile web page that displays the content that has been uploaded to the mobile web page, including a link to a text display, an email message, Vcard contact information, or a link to connect to a wireless network or to open a web page in the telephone or digital mobile device's browser.
QR codes, MobiTags, and 2D bar codes are becoming a popular means of advertising, allowing the advertiser to disseminate a code that provides information to anyone who uses their mobile phone or other reading device to read the code. The advertiser's outgoing message associated with the code can be changed easily, without having to change the code, making the use of the code inexpensive and efficient for the advertiser.
To date, tracking and usage analytics of QR codes have been limited to providing information on the identification and the IP address of the device that reads the code. This information is used to geo-locate the device, letting the tracker know where the reader device is located, but not specifically who the user is. For user identification, the user must complete a form that appears as part of the mobile web page returned to the reader or respond to questions provided in an email or text message. Such user responses can be used in numerous ways, including:                re-using user data, so that the user only has to complete the form once;        limiting the number of times a user can enter a contest or respond to an offer provided via the QR code; or        providing an offer for products or services.        
While these uses may include incentives for the user to respond, they cannot generate leads for subsequent contacts if the user doesn't complete the form. The large majority of users does not respond to the forms.
At present, only “smart phones” with QR code reader apps or other QR code reading devices can be used to scan a QR code and access the provider's URL. Such smart phones with the capability of using downloaded apps, such as a QR code reading app, currently account for close to one half of the mobile telephone devices in use. Many more camera phones are in use, able to record images and ShotCodes but unable to receive and use downloadable apps.
Thus, there is a need for a message handling and information distribution system that can respond to incoming messages received in a variety of formats, including voice communications; SMS text communications; codes received from an IVR; QR codes; ShotCodes; bar codes; and images of QR codes, ShotCodes, and bar codes. Further the system should be able to collect automatically user-specific contact information from devices that send incoming messages and then use that information for identifying and users and, optionally, subsequently contacting the users.
There is an additional need for a system that can provide access to an advertiser's URLs using an incoming voice communication, an SMS text message, an IVR code, an image of a code, an image of an item associated with the code, or a video of the item. There is a further need for a system that can facilitate prompt responses to users who access the system by sending a voice communication, an SMS text message, or a communication sent via an IVR code, or by reading a QR code, ShotCode, and/or bar code. In addition, there is a need for a system that can automatically recognize images and collect user-specific contact information from devices that provide the images and, optionally, subsequently contact the users. There is an additional need for a system that can provide access to URLs using an image of an object, which may be a photographic image, QR code, ShotCode, or bar code. There is a further need for a system that can facilitate prompt responses to users who access the system by sending a voice communication, an SMS text message, a message via an IVR, or by reading a QR code, ShotCodes, read QR codes and/or bar codes.
It would be advantageous to provide a message handling and information distribution system that combines the capabilities of receiving incoming messages in a variety of formats from a telecommunications device; simultaneously opening multiple ports on the device from the telecommunications device; and providing responses to the incoming message in a manner that includes prioritized SMS messaging and other communications with multiple ports of the telecommunications device, with the responses formatted for the telecommunications device; tracking identifying information about the telecommunications device; and providing lead routing to at least one party interested in knowing the identifying information.
It would also be advantageous to provide a message handling and information distribution system that can provide one or more links to one or more URLs in a communication back to the telecommunications device, with identifying information about the telecommunications device included in the links to allow tracking of identifying information about the telecommunications device through one or more of the URLs when a subsequent link accessed by one of the URLs is opened.
It would further be advantageous to provide a system by which a database of potential buyer information or a “prospect database” may be created and accessed, including prospects identified when they access links provided on URLs.
It would further be advantageous to provide a system by which a user can opt into and/or opt out of receiving additional information relating to similar items for sale or lease at a later time.
It would be advantageous to provide a message handling and information distribution system that includes an IVR system which allows advertisers to set-up, customize and change their own IVR responses with minimal technical assistance.
It would be further preferable to provide a message handling and information distribution system that can geo-locate the device of a caller.